In Search of Southeast Asia

I read Government and Politics of Southeast Asia by Frederic Funston for my class in political science of the same course title. I remember the class well because my professor, Jaime Naval, usually spent the first twenty minutes of class giving an inspirational talk. We used to mock him and say we always had Tuesdays with Sir Naval. Many of my classmates then probably still dismiss self-help books, but I now appreciate them better, having undergone personal transformation myself because of Dale Carnegie and Stephen Covey.

Back then, we celebrated the growth of democracy in Thailand, Indonesia, and East Timor. It appeared that Southeast Asia caught the Third Wave of Democratization and perhaps it was not too farfetched to dream about the End of History. Alas, in the years since, Thailand relapsed into another military government before restoring democracy only lately, and East Timor has experienced several bouts of violence. Indonesia and the Philippines continue to struggle in creating institutions that will make them established democracies. We also lamented the sorry state of Myanmar back then; we are now aghast at how the generals have treated their own people in the aftermath of a cyclone that has now claimed nearly 100,000 lives. ASEAN, despite its much ballyhooed charter, has hardly made any progress.

Does Southeast Asia really exist? Or is it just defined by geography, that piece of the Asian continent destined to live in the shadows of the future Great Powers, India and China?